First things first, I have no problem with powerlifting or (most) powerlifters.
Unlike bodybuilding, it is a sport.
Also unlike bodybuilding, the people who partake of it are, on the whole, well-adjusted people.
However.
Something I have never jibed with are the methodologies they favour for getting strong.
Here is a grossly oversimplified example:
Let’s pretend you want to increase your bench press by 5kg from 95kg to 100kg.
A typical powerlifting programme will have you calculate all of your training weights based off of this new personal best. The idea being that each workout within the programme builds upon the last until you hit (or, potentially, exceed) your 100kg target at some point in the last week of the programme.
All fine and dandy.
A very effective way of doing things, in fact – with one almighty catch:
There’s very little room for error.
So.
If you get sick or the kids have been keeping you up at night or you’re under the cosh at work or one of the infinite number of challenges that conspire to undermine your training befalls you, you will have a Very Difficult time hitting your lifts as you move through the programme.
And if you don’t hit your lifts?
You don’t get your PB – much of the time.
I should know, because I tried (and failed) to implement these methodologies over and over again while I was working on the ambulances.
Due to the way the shifts messed with my energy levels, I found I’d crash and burn after a few weeks – no matter how conservatively I set my weight target.
Indeed, the only way I could hit the target was if I programmed in for my current personal best (or slightly lighter), which defeated the point of doing the programme (setting a new personal best).
You could argue, perhaps rightly, that this is very much a “me” problem.
Yet bountiful experience has shown me that most “normal” guys whose lives don’t revolve around training and eating also struggle to make it through these programmes.
There’s just too much busywork with bookkeeping, not to mention the struggles I’ve just described.
Enter the system for building strength that I describe in August’s issue of “The Phil Tyreman Letter”.
Like everything I create, it’s designed to be simple, unobtrusive, and manageable for the man who takes his training seriously, but understands it comes second to attending to more important responsibilities like family and work.
Tonight (31st) at 23:59 is the deadline to subscribe in time to get August’s issue.
Subscribers also receive my renowned “Virtually Unlimited” support, plus a bunch of other things that are described on the below page:
https://philtyreman.co.uk/information/
Thank you,
Phil Tyreman